All Drugged Up: The Overmedication And Overschooling Of Today’s Youth

What are we going to do about those little monsters called children? They won’t be quiet, won’t sit still and won’t pay attention. They aren’t succeeding in school, and no matter how many drugs we pump into them, they don’t seem to get any better.

To the surprise of no one, a new study has just been released showing that the staggeringly popular prescription drug Adderall is not having any positive effects on children’s grades, and in fact may be causing more kids to drop out of school.

The finding should have been obvious, but don’t expect inattentive parents to stop buying the drug, and don’t expect greedy psychiatrists to stop handing them out like candy – for a hefty price.

The overmedication of our children is an increasingly troubling trend. We seem to think kids should behave like robots, always doing what they are told, when they are told, with no independence of thought or action. Any sign of resistance to indoctrination or disobedience of authority is diagnosed as some form of “disorder” and promptly treated with strong, dangerous drugs.

When I was in college, Adderall was the go-to drug for privileged rich kids trying to pull all-nighters for classes they had been too lazy to study for. It was a regular practice for students to announce “I’m going to see my shrink. Who needs what?” then return with a veritable pharmacological cornucopia of mood altering substances doled out by unethical or incompetent “doctors.”

The effects of these drugs were frightening. They transferred relatively normal undergraduates into hyperactive speed-freaks. And while the pills certainly kept students awake, concentration was the last thing they helped. I would be shocked if the presence of Adderall on campus improved a single grade, but it did cause alarming changes in behavior and personality, as well as apparently being quite addictive. And this is what they tell us we need to give young children.

If we want to know why children are failing in schools, the answer isn’t “lack of drugs” or even “psychological disorders.” Anyone who has ever been around a child should be able to predict the effects of cramming several dozen kids into a small, windowless room for six hours a day where they are made to sit still, pay attention and listen to the tedious droning of teachers pontificating on irrelevant subjects. This is not normal. This is not the way children are meant to be raised. In our desperate quest to compete with China and other Asian countries, we have come to believe that the secret to educational success is more rigidity, more control, and less freedom.

The problem is partially a cultural one, but it is also exacerbated by government attempts to meddle in education. No Child Left Behind, Head Start and Common Core Standards have all tried to impose top-down regulations on the way children are taught, as well as forcing them into failing public schools based on geography rather than the individual needs of students and parents.

Megan McArdle has a great article addressing this hyper-competitive fear of failure. We are so obsessed with the idea of our children ticking all the boxes – a good GPA, a high SAT score, a college education, grad school, work, marriage, kids, death – that we are terrified to allow for any experimentation or risk. The amount of pressure the average child faces today is insane. And when they don’t prove equal to it, we cram them full of pharmaceuticals at a time in their lives when their primary concerns should be climbing trees, catching frogs, and learning who they are as individuals.

Childhood suicides are becoming a major problem, and while the media has been attempting to put the blame on “bullying” – a phenomenon that has been around as long as there have been kids – few of us stop to consider whether the high-stress environment of modern schools may be contributing to the effect. Not to worry though! We can always just hand out another round of anti-depressants. What could possibly be the harm in that?

Well, I guess a half clueless article is better than a fully clueless one.

'They' haven't wrecked the schools and put kids on drugs because they want them to better compete against China or because of 'all the pressures' today.

'They' don't want the masses to be able to compete . . . . especially against them and their off-spring.

Too many parents agree to have their kids drugged up because they have been indoctrinated to obey 'authority', espcially those with degrees and those in white coats. 100 years of public 'schooling' and almost 70 years of t.v. will do that to a population. Some of the kids have enough of an inherent self respect to fight that brain washing and they are targeted.

Perhaps, in time, people will march their children obediently off to the ovens when they are told so by the 'doctors'.

In a world where nobody can take responsibility for their governments actions on their behalf, why would you think parents know how to take responsibility for their kids? The state will be responsible for them, on behalf of the parents irresponsibility. State solution, usually the outcome is failure, is to sell more drugs and driven by profits -not solutions-. Plan or accident?

Parents will look to blame the outcome of the state (pharma and doctors now under ACA) alleviating their parenting responsibilities, for the consequences of them allowing their children to be experimented on. If the state is found at fault, the bill goes to the taxpayer as the state has no money..only a host. Messing with nature, is like messing with free markets..it ends badly.

Its always someone elses fault..according to television lobotomized lemmings. Guns, gays, left, right...introduce kids that need medicating. Add that both parents have to work to sustain a lower middle class lifestyle and they "don't have time to parent". They will probably blame it on terrorists, teapartiers, left, right or whomever but themselves.

In the end taking responsibility for the people granted the privilege of enforcing the will of the people, Is the only Solution. Bring back honest money so families can earn a decent living wage and spend time with their kids....be families and I bet the drug use would go down. Too bad the mass populace is focused on "something for nothing", "food for less" "fresh and easy"....while they get paid for their value created..nothing for something.

Loonies running the asylum. Maybe kids would be better raised by the TV..whoops I mean state.

RIPS

Edit: Want something for nothing...trade your pieces of paper or digital blips for silver or gold. They are on Sale!!

Firstly let me say that ALL these children do not belong to the parents, when the children are born every parent without fail abandons their children and gives them to the state in return for a birth cert , and then that child has 5 million dollars put into its Tresuary deposit account for use by the banks to dicharge credit that may be borrowed by the child in the future . The child can also use that account to discharge debt , but there is one problem you may not use your own account whilsts you are a 14th amedment citizen , because you have given up all your rights when you became a Citizen of the UNITED STATES . So only the state has the power over your children that you kindly look after for the state , do anything wrong and the state will take thier children back into CPS custerdy. You have to cancel all contracts with the Federal Govt and become a Citizen of the United States of America , then for the first time in your life you will live in the real America and have complete ownwership of you children.

Personally, I think a lot of this behavior can be traced to poor diet. When I was carpooling with a few other moms I was shocked what they fed their kids. Usually shoved them in my car with a pop tart and a coke. My kids had a breakfast of an egg, sausage or bacon and a piece of whole grain toast. Their kids were bouncing off the walls in the backseat while mine were reviewing homework. Their teachers commented how much focus and attention our kids had, far above their grade level. I don't think this was genetics but a structured loving environment with plenty of exercise and good nutritious food. It's really that simple. Drugs just mask problems and create more problems by themselves.

It use to be that the "drug" was a good ass whipping, at best, and physical, sexual and/or verbal abuse at worst. Going back to what pre-empted today is stupid! The "family" was just as dysfunctional back then as it is now. It was just hidden under an agreed upon secrecy. Now our shit is in our face! We are where we are because of the lack of ability and desire to grow our consciousness.

You may have a point. I will never forget putting my 2 year old son in time out. He looked at me and said: "When you put me in time out, I think of more bad things." He turned out to be a math whiz, national merit scholar and is now being paid to study mechanical engineering. (The university writes him a check each term, after covering his tuition, books, housing, etc.)

However, he was a non-starter, non social, under achiever in grade school. Despite our skepticism, we allowed his doctor to prescribe ADD medication. After the first few weeks, may son told us that he was happy at school instead of hating it. I don't thing the treatment is total BS, but I also think there is a lot of misuse.

the honeymoon period works: dopamine production upped & prefrontal cortex risk/reward centers rewired for sure...prob is tolerance and long-term issues, not limited to what's been termed adderall-psychosis...careful it's a blackbox labelled for good reason...

In many forums, when the subject of psycho meds are brought up there is a very strong reaction from people.

As pointed out in many recent articles, a lot of Americans have been put on this stuff and have put their kids on it.

"Little Johnny didn't like that they make him sit in a little chair at his desk all day while trying to fill his head full of b.s. in school. He doesnt like that and tends to fidget and sometimes talk back to the drone called a 'teacher'". Well, we've put him on 'medicine' now . . . and he seems to be a lot better."

An elderly relative of mine had a little poodle pup. Theyre an energetic breed, especially when so young. The lady asked her vet if there was something she could do to help calm the dog & prevent it from jumping so much. The vet said she could prescribe Prozac for the dog. (Guess they market it to vets too.) The relative didn't want to do that and asked my opinion. Of course, I told her that minature poodles are energetic, that vet was insane, and it was a good time to find a different vet. I would have placed a good size bet that that vet was on Prozac herself.

Ah yes, Guarden, IF school were any good, rather than evil, then those would be the kinds of courses that they would teach! However, it is inherently paradoxical for authorities to teach that authorities ought not be trusted. Ideally, the teachers should be enlightened enough to know that, and so, to teach that. However, in fact schools are soft prisons, and the teachers are soft cops. (While the trends are towards those not being so "soft" anymore.)

I did my undergrad work at a university that was science and engineering orientated, though there was the broad spectrum of degrees offered in various fields.

Everyone knew that the profs and students in the Ed dept were the dumbest around.

A buddy of mine was a good guy, liked kids, and wanted to be a teacher. He used to joke about how stupid his classmates and the profs were.

My point is that youre not likely to find a lot of 'enlightenment for reform' from that quarter - - - The few rare souls that try to do so are the exception that proves the rule. For most, its about a cushy job, lots of vacation time, job security & pension, and pretty decent salaries for the 'work'. (Just check out what principals in some places are making nowadays). Not rocking the boat seems to be a major part of the job description - - - like a lot of govt 'workers'. They have internalized the lesson to 'respect authority' and credentials. So, they all run off and get a 'Masters' in Ed b.s. piece of paper in a few years after starting out.

The number of down arrows should be a pretty good count of the number of public school 'teachers' reading this.

Well, my friend... I was a public school teacher... high school and advanced placement chemistry... My experience with the teachers I met was that most were competent and devoted, you have losers in any profession.

Mixing the influx of illegals into the general population makes for a depressing environment in the classroom, as most are severely undereducated, but even that could be dealt with.

The problem is that the system does not intend to educate, but rather to inculcate young people with ideas such as life is dull,there is little point to learning, be prepared to spend a life of menial servitude... and above all obey authority.

On the other hand I suspect there was an abundance of idiots attending your school.

Well my friend, I don't know what you meant by "HanGing school" but can guess the meaniing of "with the teachers I met was that most competent were and devoted" - - -If your typing skills are as poor as mine are, we'll let it pass.

What did you do to try to change things ? Have you read John Taylor Gatto ? Do you know anything about the Prussian education system influence on American mandatory public education ? Do you know the impact of private foundations in establishing Ed schools in universities ? You do know that technical education is all well and good (my undergrad degree is in engineering), but that doesn't make for a truly educated human being ?

A chem teacher wouldl likely be able to teach kids a lot more if they earned a degree in Chemical Engineering, worked in the real world for a few years, and then taught classes . . . . without the monoopoly granting 'certificate' of teaching required.

If you were one of the good guys and tried to impact a system which does as its designed to do - dumb down students and make them compliant - then good for you. The odds are that you were as clueless as most of them in the system.

Yes, there were plenty of idiots at my undergrad university. A disproportionate number of them were in the Ed dept.

P.S. - looks like you did an edit job after reference to your earlier post. That's generally frowned upon here. We can edit as much as we need before we are quoted by someone, but its considered 'chickensh*t' to do so afterwards.

"The problem is that the system does not intend to educate, but rather to inculcate young people with ideas such as life is dull,there is little point to learning, be prepared to spend a life of menial servitude... and above all obey authority." on this part of your post we are in full agreement.

Looking back over my earlier reply (before this P.S. - I was a bit harsh) Given that portion of your comment that I quoted last, it looks like we are mostly on the same page in many ways.

You'll notice I didn't make Ad Hominem attacks, just made observations about the general quality of public 'educators'. You didn't reply or make reference to Gatto, the Prussian ed system, private foundation influence on establishing Ed schools, etc . . . . but went to the Ad Hominem & apparently a quick retreat.

This is an obvious tactic in a weak argument. Maybe that works on most high school kids, but it won't work here.

If you truly care, do a little research on those subjects that were mentioned. If you did so you'd see that your opinon that most teachers are dedicated/competent professionals but there are a few bad ones, like in most fields . . . is deeply flawed, and beside the point.

my coz got laughed out of family dinner one Sunday trying to tell us how necessary and important and beneficial for the kids the tenure idea was. given that he was a year or two away from it at the time, he didnt take it too well. somehow these guys think there should be a coefficient of friction at one's job, and getting past that means your job is now superfluid and nothing can cause resistance for you.

sorry coz, the world dont work that way. perform or go the way of the dodo, its not perform for a while and then get the 'untouchable' nod from some peers.

I did not respond specifically because frankly the things you wrote were not worth a response.

You read a couple of books, and have some causual and suddenly you have become an expert. I spent a lifetime attempting to reform the educational system from the inside...

The problem for the most part is not the teachers... and for everyone you can point a finger to I can find as many misfits elsewhere.

The problem is the system which as I posted above does not intend to educate. As teachers we gave untold amounts of our time dealing with the problems of running a school and establishing an environment where young people could learn. At the same time the principle would lock herself in her office for the entire day with her handful of picked cronies and plot against teachers... litterally... while two or three hundred kids were wandering the campus, rapes were taking place in the restrooms, etc. I along with several others, although I created the policies, we eventually solved many of these problems all the while I and others were carrying a full teaching load. Funny enough... all the time we were working to that end the principle did her best to stop us. When we finally cleaned up the school she had the press down showing them what a great job she was doing.

The kids during lunch and nutrition would throw their garbage onto the ground. I remember one young man complaining that the school needed to hire more janitors as the mess was not getting picked up in time. I approached the principle one day and suggested to her that we add five minutes onto lunch and nutrition and converge on the students as a faculty and force them to put their trash in the receptacles. It was my opinion that after a coupld of days the kids would learn that it was easier to put it there to beging with. She told me that we could not order the kids to do anything we could only ask them.

As to you thinking that someone coming from industry would be a better teacher... you do not know the first thing about teaching. Could someone come from industry and become a good teacher...sure... but they would, and did as I knew several such people, have a great deal to learn. Should a teacher be a master of their subject... absolutely... but that is only one of many requirements.

This slamming of teachers took place as a distraction from what was really going on. The system was intentionally destroying young people, and still is...

I will admit that I have been disappointed with much of the teaching staff since moving to Northern Idaho. This is more of a rural area and they do not pay well at all... old addage, you get what you pay for. My son took chemistry at one of the local high schools. His teacher did not even introduce balancing equations until somewhere in the second semester. You cannot teach chemistry until students learn this skill... it would be on the level of teach literature to people who could not form a sentence. When I challenged him on it he suggested that the federal government was insisting that chemistry be severly dumbed down so more people would pursue it as a career... Perhaps that makes sense to you, I certainly don't get it. Sometime in the second semester this same teacher was teaching chemical reactions that would only occure with catalysis... yet he was writing these equations as though they were spontaneous. Leaving aside the question of why he was introducing biological reactions in a basic inorganic class, the fact was that when I pointed this out to him... told him that what he was teaching was not even true, he could not understand the problem. I have since learned that the new standard in education states that it does not matter what you teach, or even that it is true, the point is that the students get the experience of learning.

Education is being destroyed from the top down. The teachers, with some exceptions my son's chemistry teacher being one of them, are being used as scapegoats.

Lordflin - thank you for your very interesting comments. It must have been extremely frustrating for you. I tried to have an influence on the local school board and (with other colleagues with engineering, science, and military officer backgrounds) offered our services as free voluntary instructor/tutors in the schools. We met much resistance from those in the education administration. It was a long and ultimately futile effort.

Of course, this is a broad topic that goes beyond just math & science teaching. Focusing on those technical fields narrowly, produces nothing but technicians - not people who are truly educated. They may be technician/technocrats with Phds and realatively high salaries, but they are still limited & narrow in their viewpoint.

IMO, shared by others - the American mandatory public education system is not reformable. It does what it is designed to do. It produces compliant workers for routine jobs, with some of the brighter students receiving more advanced but narrowly focused technical schooling.They are the society's doctors, lawyers, scientists, etc But just ask any of these highly educated people about the nature of money or banking, for example, and most are as ignorant of such topics as the general population. They may apply the scientific method in their jobs, but not in ways which make informed citizens.

The American 'schooling' system was captured more than 100 years ago by private interests. These actions and the ones that followed, including the latest versions such as No Child Left Behind and Common Core are gutting real learning & our nation.

BTW - I never downarrow people who just disagree with me either. I welcome debate and exchange of ideas - heated or otherwise. Regards, - - -

I voted against every school bill that ever came up, despite the fact they were paying my salary, in the hope that the system would die of starvation. The last thing I am is a supporter of public schools.

And I agree that there are very few educated people coming out of our universities... the vast majority are merely trained, as you have pointed out. Education is an inside job... To be truly educated you must educate yourself. Most of what I have learned I have learned on my own, despite over eight years of university education where I pursued the hard sciences.

The fact is education is no longer a goal, nor do I believe that it will be until society resets... assuming there is something of a world left. Sadly, we live in a time that values knowledge over wisdom. Knowledge without wisdom is a great deal worse than nothing.

Lordflin - - - I also wanted to add that I read the details of your son's 'chemistry' experience several times. I was dumbfounded when I read it. The idea of someone 'teaching' h.s. chemistry without balancing equations is . . . absolutely amazing. You are more patient a man than I am. I frankly wouldn't even know where to begin with that chem 'teacher'. What do you even say to someone that stupid and/or incompetent ?

Not only is knowledge valued over wisdom. Data is valued over knowledge.

So its o.k. if whats learned is wrong, as long as they go through the motions, and 'feel good' afterwards ? Incredible.

Let me add one more thing. In today's educational system students are being empowered to go after teachers. A kid walks into administration and says he saw me fly from the top of B Hall on a broomstick and the next thing you know the administration is attempting to burn me in the middle of the quad as a witch. When the charges are proven to be groundless nothing happens to the kid. He is free to make another accusation against another teacher the following week.

In such an environment many teachers will not take risks. In one sense I could not blame them. As for myself... Once kids passed through my door into my classroom I considered them my responsibility... ostensibly the law did as well... And I did and still do take teaching very seriously. besides, I don't like my time wasted. If I am going to hang out in a room with a bunch of young people all day something of value is going take place there.

But for this and many other reasons many teachers eventually lose heart.

“We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.”? Woodrow Wilson

"Scientific societies are as yet in their infancy. . . . It is tobe expected that advances in physiology and psychologywill give governments much more control over individualmentality than they now have even in totalitarian countries.Fitche laid it down that education should aim at destroyingfree will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall beincapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking oracting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would havewished. . . . Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine,from a very early age, to produce the sort of character andthe sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable,and any serious criticism of the powers that be will becomepsychologically impossible. . . .”-~Bertrand Russell,1953

"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education."~Bertrand Russell

"We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so."~Bertrand Russell, The ABC of Relativity (1925), p. 166.

"In this way, one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period.... No matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades."~Zbigniew Brzezinksi, Between Two Ages

Why dumb us all down?

“The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.”~Zbigniew Brzezinksi, Between Two Ages

"Whatever the price of the Chinese Revolution, it has obviously succeeded not only in producing more efficient and dedicated administration, but also in fostering high morale and community of purpose. The social experiment in China under Chairman Mao's leadership is one of the most important and successful in human history."– David Rockefeller

"Advocates of capitalism (Rockefeller types) are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."Bertrand Russell

These two sound a lot more like Hitler than George Washington, don't they?

How do they manipulate and control the masses?

“In the technotronic society the trend would seem to be towards the aggregation of the individual support of millions of uncoordinated citizens, easily within the reach of magnetic and attractive personalities exploiting the latest communications techniques to manipulate emotions and control reason.” ? Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era

All Risk No Reward - thank you for taking the time to post those quotes and links. I'd previously read all the works cited and listened/watched the videos & audio recordings.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote: "If you expect a nation to be ignorant and free, you expect what never was and can never be."

Education is a vital subject for all of us, even those without kids.

I know some good, dedicated public school teachers who are truly trying to make a positive impact on kids lives. And, I have run across quite a few that coast along or have been so beaten down & exhausted by the system, that they are just gliding along to retirement.

I try to steer as many of them as possible to Gatto's work "The Underground History of America Education" so they can see the bigger picture and understand why their efforts are usually thwarted, and why things never really seem to change - except for the worse. (This book can be read online for free at the link you provided above.)

Private interests entered colleges and established Schools of Education in the early 20th Century. They had (have) an agenda, and it isn't to support the maintenance of a democratic American republic with informed and active citizens. They were particularly interested in 'tranforming' (that is, wrecking) the way American history was taught in K-12 and in the universities. They have been very successful in these efforts, as evidenced by the various videos showing people interviewed on the most basic aspects of the US Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.

If you received an education degree, everything you were taught is within this framework.(And this is the real reason that teaching certificates are mandated - even for experienced & successful professionals who have taught people in industry and military service academies)

Real reform, that is the kind which helps students become critical thinkers and informed citizens - does not happen because the system is designed to do the very opposite of that.

In the former USSR there were those with advanced degrees in communist party theory and its practice. And, they would have conferences where they discussed all the minute details. Of course, all that was beside the point - the foundations of it all were intellectually and financially bankrupt. The real purpose of those conferences was to maintain the existing structure by trying to give it intellectual legitimacy. Gorbachev's stated goals to 'reform' that system were doomed to fail also.

I agree with the teacher/reformer who said that real education won't likely be possible till there is a complete Reset. True education is individual in nature. You provide this for yourself and for your kids. (Start with less t.v. time and more time reading & discussing good books. Learn critical thinking skills. Encourage independent creative projects.) - Many of the good teachers are frustrated by the apathetic attitudes of many parents who use school as a baby sitter.

If you are really into research take a look at the people behind public education, here and in Germany where the concept of kindergarten came into being, John Dewey for example, of the famed Dewey Decimal System...

"If you are really into research take a look at the people behind public education, here and in Germany where the concept of kindergarten came into being, John Dewey for example, of the famed Dewey Decimal System...

This was planned from the start."

Yes, that's true. The foundations are in the Prussian education system.

Don't even get me started on Dewey.

"Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way the teacher is always the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of heaven." - - - Dewey's Pedagogic Creed, 1897

As one would expect from an article associated with Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada, this article grossly understates the degree of deliberate evil behind these developments. Since reality is actually a Bizarro Mirror World, because the banksters' frauds dominate everything, I tend to inverse the usual cliche that one should never blame on conspiracy what one can blame on incompetence. I regard it as intellectual incompetence to not blame these phenomena on evil conspiracies, which automatically flow as necessary corollaries to the banksters' triumph in privatizing the public "money" supply to be issued by banks, which make that "money" out of nothing, as debts.

Since the real foundation of the political economy is that system of government enforced frauds, which requires the vast majority of the population to be political idiots, that do not understand, and do not want to understand their real situation, OF COURSE, school systems, and the ways that we treat children, have become runaway social insanities. After all, the fundamental structure of the established debt slavery system, which inherently drives the generation of debt insanity numbers, operates so that the younger you are, then the more you are being lied to, cheated and robbed. The banksters' frauds are designed to destroy the future. That is the innate nature of a debt slavery system, which pays for today by making claims on tomorrow. Of course, inside that context, the banksters promoted the PROFIT FROM DISEASE SYSTEM, and the PROFIT FROM JUNK FOOD SYSTEM, which have the worst effects upon the young or not yet born.

Since the foundation of the entire social pyramid system is the triumph of frauds, in a positive feedback through the funding of the political processes, the central characteristic of that system was to make and maintain an attitude of evil deliberate ignorance. That feature constantly drives the contradictions of privatized profits, and socialized losses, to generate the maximum short-term profits, at the same time as it also causes the maximum long-term costs to accumulate.

I WISH that I could come to any other final conclusion than that this overall trend has gone on too long, too much, and therefore, has gone too far to now be fixed. Our society has become terminally sick and insane, and the ways that we are screwing future generations are the leading symbols of that. However, the vicious spiral of the profits from frauds being able to be reinvested through the political processes, to enable more frauds, has made the established political systems impossible to repair ... unless one posits that there will be some series of political miracles, because one is desperate to continue to cling to some irrational hope, rather than have no hope whatsoever?

I tend to inverse the usual cliche that one should never blame on conspiracy what one can blame on incompetence.

That indeed explains why you're such a potheaded conspiracy theorist, i.e. total fool who can't detect the mundane real evils all around him while chasing the purely fictional fanciful shadows and figments of his pathetic and racist imagination. You'll never see your real killer coming until it's too late, sucker!

The central fact in our society is that private banks make the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts. That central fact is at the core of everything else, which is controlled by that fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting system. That is NOT any kind of "theory!" It is a plainly obvious fact, whose history can be understood as due to the application of the methods of organized crime, primarily through the funding of the political processes.

Most of your ad hominem attacks are mistaken, however, you are perhaps correct, Riprake, that I may well "never see" my "real killer coming until it's too late," BUT, I seriously doubt that anything I say or do will ever become significant enough for the banksters or their buddies to bother to pay hit men to take me out. If I am murdered, it would merely be as another one of many, many millions mass murdered in the future generally.

No malek, I do NOT reverse the general principle of Occam's Razor that states that among competing hypotheses, the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions should be selected.

Occam's Razor is not intended to operate in a way that deliberately ignores facts, in order to advance the simplest theory, despite those facts. The development of the monetary system through the funding of the political processes is full of historical facts. It is those facts which require the hypothesis of pyramidion people at the top of the social pyramid systems who have been systematically applying the methods of organized crime to control governments. There are plenty of historical facts, available to anyone who looks for them, to demonstrate how the funding of the schools generally, including the medical schools in particular, were part of the overall runaway political processes of the development of a fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting system being able to dominate the development of every social institution.

It is NOT a proper use of Occam's Razor to presume incompetence, rather than malice, when it is plainly obvious that a malicious monetary system dominates and controls everything else that society does, which includes its school systems, and medical systems, and how those two systems interacted through the monetary system, and the overall history of the funding of the political processes, by driving society to become almost totally dominated by frauds, within every area that one examines.

It is NOT a proper use of Occam's Razor to look at all of the ways in which civilization operates as a social pyramid system, and then say it is not necessary to assume that the components of that system converge at its top through the pyramidion people. On the contrary, it is ridiculously stupid to examine the social facts that there is an overall social pyramid system, but then say that developed due to incompetence, rather than due to malice aforethought.

They are responsible for their choices, - but who else but each individual should choose for them ? Who has the right to choose for another ? Is it your life, or not ? To think you have the right to choose for others is tyranny, even if you think 'you know best'.

Free choice doesn't neccessarily mean a 'good choice', however. Choose lots of cigarettes and junk food - and the results may not be healthy.

We don't have anyting near to a free market today. Some use government to impose choices on others, for their own benefit. That benefit may be money. Or it may be just the 'thrill' that some get by telling others how to live.

Different people evoke different mental images when they think about such words as 'capitalism' and 'the free market' and 'profit' - which is roughly the difference between what you get for something and the cost of providing it to someone. But a real free market is nothing but people choosing for themselves based on whatever criteria they want. You either choose, or someone else does it for you . . .. and maybe even if you don't want what theyre offering.

Make my prison stronger so that it can keep me in and I give up in defeat and struggle no longer. Don't let me think about the freedom on the other side of my prison walls. Don't let me dream of escape. Don't let me dream at all.

OFF TOPIC BUT DECENCY REQUIRES IT BE NOTED: Walt Ehlers,recepient of the Congressional Medal Of Honor for actions on June 9-June10,1944, died on Thursday at the age of 92. He and his brother Roland were in the 2nd wave to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day. It was not until July 15 that he discovered that Roland had been KIA by a mortar round while coming down the ramp of his LST to the beach. I will always remember this humble, soft-spoken, almost shy man in his own words. "He had bright red hair, was slightly shorter than me, was always a perfect gentleman and tended to keep me that way as well. Sometimes I see him at night and we talk. I would have rather come home without my arms and legs than to have come home without my brother."

Please take a moment to reflect on the honor of this man and the glory that WAS America's for having produced such men.

Just because the man was courageous and had integrity...doesn't mean the people giving him orders did.

Just like a doctor may think they are doing the right thing in their eyes, but in reality they are selling drugs for the parasite.Just like you here... your heart is in the right place ..but you need to try to think bigger.

There are many good people who blindly follow directions. I personally know people who have fought in war and they in retrospect arent happy with themselves. Essentially remorse and shame are left ,where they thought they would find dignity and honor. The clinical term is PSTD...there's a pill for that too.

You do know that they let the Versailles attack to cover up the private shareholders theft...right?

I know some middle aged ritalin addicts and benzo addicts who were put on the pills as teenagers. They are shocking. This is a ticking timebomb. Sanity and mental independence are two more support pillars for the puppetmasters to blow out during their controlled demolition of Western civilization. I wonder what people will do when they can't get their pills during a hyperinflationary social breakdown. Guess that depends on whether the government will hand them out as perks for narcing on preppers.

Meddle in education??? They meddle in every aspect of a parent's attempt to raise a child! I could go on for many paragraphs about the horror stories I've accumulated, but I'm sure everyone here has a collection of thier own. Parents are not permitted to raise thier kids. The kids grow up with no boundaries, including an unbounded sense of entitlement, drugged to the gills, and everyone wonders why they're monsters? Really?

I don't know about kids, but I tried Adderall in university and it was AWESOME. I could study for hours, clean my entire apartment, and sort things that have been disorganized for months. Adderall is amphetamine. Good stuff.

"on a serious note, teacher across the street has a cure for hyperactive 4th grade boys"

I do something similar at work. I don't get hyperactive, but it feels like I'm getting sick when I'm sitting in a chair for hours. I run up the stairs as fast as possible then sit down again. I feel much better, more awake, my sinus congestion goes away.

Also, our society needs to get the stick out of its ass and get back to our drug loving roots as human beings. Up until 1959, you could buy amphetamine at any drug store. It did not require a prescription. The prosperous 1950's everyone remembers were a time of much looser drug laws. Laws in general were much looser. You could drink a glass of wine before driving without being thrown in jail. You could spank your kids without being thrown in jail. Most things people remember doing as kids are illegal these days. Parents would proudly take photos of their children and keep the pictures in their wallet. There are lots of pictures of me as a baby crawling around naked. Try that now and the government will take your kids away. It's actually illegal to photograph children in some counties.

Nice. "On The Road"comes to mind, as well as a Vonnegut work, referencing the 40's & 50's, which said. "We were all drunk." Executive drinks at noon from the liquor cabinet? For sure, whatarya, a pansy? Look up Winston Churchill and note his habits. Whiskey and naps, seems like.

Some years ago, while visiting an old American friend in Germany (he worked there, I was traveling), he and his wife told me that the German school teachers wanted to 'medicate' (sedate) one of his kids for... being "too lively in class."

I don't think he was disruptive or had a 'disorder', but that the teachers at his school (near Wiesbaden, a high-end casino town) wanted to have a "quiet life" for themselves, rather being pushed or challenged by a bright & lively 8 y.o.

Needless to say that his parents did not go for 'medication', and that kid is now the top of his class. There are a lot of things I like about Germany, but many Germans do carry their obsession for "Ordnung muss sein!"** a bit far.

I'd be willing to bet that it's no longer optional. Any parent that doesn't want to drug thier kid is now threatened with having them confiscated by the gov. This happened with my best friend. Her kid is grown now and pretty worthless. Just gets high all the time, lives at home, doesn't work. Not too suprising, really, the kid has been continuously stoned since about age 6.

Compete bullshit. Learning is not something you fall out of your mothers womb wanting to do--that's why XBOX and Fritos exist. Its something your parents have to BEAT into you. Boys are f@!k ups in school because no one gives enough of a s@#t about them to spank them. This means you all you pathetic "dads" who call your kids "buddy." Sure the drugs dont work, but the notion that kids dont want to learn math or english because they dont find in "interesting" or "motivating" is ludicrous. There's a reason why the Romans wrote treatises on how and when to beat your kids to make them learn.

So you're more into the Asian "Tiger Mom" style, huh? Kids don't need beatings(most of the time), they need regiment, exercise and a good kick in the butt every once in awhile. I mostly agree, but leading with beating can turn kids off too. Kids need involvement. You have to be present. You have to lead by example. Drugs should only be used as the last and only option. I get pissed at medicating for kids being kids. Before age of 10-12, kids go through myelination. They are hard wired to move and act out. Suppress that and you will hinder learning and development.

"Sure the drugs dont work, but the notion that kids dont want to learn math or english because they dont find in "interesting" or "motivating" is ludicrous"

But it's true. The kids who do very well are the ones who enjoy using their brain. Those thinkers grow up to be scientists, engineers, and doctors. A very small minority of people are thinkers. Most people would prefer not to think. If you've ever tried to hire someone, you would immediately notice that most people are barely lilterate.

We all know this is the case, but it's not politically correct to say most people are profoundly retarded. Instead, we pretend that everyone is capable of doing math or reading a map. It's politically correct to say that stupid people will understand math if you just show them enough times or give them enough drugs. It doesn't work like that. Giving Adderall to a genius will create a super genius. Giving Adderall to an ordinary retard creates the stereotype of a meth user - jittery, nonsensical, paranoid, delusional, irrational, and irritable. We all know this, but we're not allowed to point out the obvious.

When we are born, we are all wired differently. It is the job of the parent to determine how their children are wired and guide them toward that pre-wired aptitude. Anyone who has raised children knows how different they are ... and they know they didn't treat the children that differently to bring about the contrast. Vicarious is a word of which all parents should necessarily be aware.

Betimes I do miss the 70's. If I were a school kid today, I'm sure I'd be scripped and strung out. In second grade, I was evaluated and my (adoptive) parents were given the choice of jumping me ahead a few grades, which they decided not to do, as little brainiacs like me often had problems adjusting socially. Which now seems like a big mistake - I'm a high-funtioning aspie, being thrown in the deep end of the pool probably would have helped me figure out the social thing better. Near photographic memory, voracious reader since age 5; I was that kid who got his math test, wrote all the answers down and turned it in after 5 minutes, 100% correct but got dinged for not showing my "work" (since the problems seemed so trivial.) Took me years and years to fully realize that not everyone could do this, if they wanted to. So school was more often than not quite boring. An hour long class to pound into our heads what the reading assignment meant, when I'd read it in 10 minutes with 100% comprehension and retention, and if it was interesting I read ahead, making me a PITA for the teacher because I'd be weeks ahead of the rest of the class and eager for more.

Around 1995 I was working in a bookstore in a college town; one of our regulars was a grad student in poli sci who was on staff w/ somebody in Sacramento. He told me that one of the reasons for the big prison build-up going on, besides the graft, was that test results showed that a large portion of high school kids were likely "unemployable." Too dumb to work. This had some policy makers worried.

2003, I stop at a gas station to pick up a pack of cigarettes; $4, so I give the girl behind the counter a $5 bill. She says, 'Just hang on a second, I wanna make sure." Pulls out a pocket calculator to subtract 4 from 5, so I can get the right change. I was somewhat amazed.

Given how the present environment attacks independent thinking & creativity, who knows what the potential is for most human beings ? Many people have psychological barriers to learning that came from their early experiences at home & in school.

I suspect that under the proper learning environment, most people have a lot more potential than they imagine. In addition, the definition for learning, creativity, ability, etc have to be broadened. There is more to the world than just what is traditionally considered 'academic'.

How would a Shakespeare, Picasso, Einstein, Hemingway, or Edison done on the SATs ?

Edison would have flunked, but Tesla would have aced it. So who did we learn about in elementary school? Edison. It was much later before I knew Tesla even existed, let alone his accomplishments. My elementary schooling was '51 to '58.

Also, old men, get your shit together. Is the narrative that (1) US kids are lazy fuckers who live in their parents' basement and who are the vanguard of the Free Shit Army, or (2) precious little overworked darlings, each with Steve Jobs like potetial, who would flourish absent all the nasty pressure we put on them? You guys pick one and stick with it, OK? Let us know when you select the pravda you want us to follow.

And here in the Land of the (used to be) Free, if a child's school recommends that he needs professional medical evaluation for ADHD medications, and you as a parent decline to accept this "recommendation", you could find your child removed from the home by the State so he can be property "treated".

Homeschooling yet? If not, at least are you demanding that parents be allowed to have vouchers so you can send him to the best school that you deem suitable?

We moved out of the city and into the country with some land for out kids to play. The public schools in the city I still work in are sub-standard on many levels, but basiclly the school district spends way to much time and money trying to bring up the poverty stricken kids, the ones where a lot of the parents are clueless or absent. Lots of future prison inmates and illiteracy. We will be homescooling our two children. Even the more rural school district we now are apart of is not really that great. Homeschooling is not my first choice of educating my kids, but I'd rather do that than hand them over to the state/public school indocrination camp. Sounds nuts but that's basically what we have today.

Well I confess I'm surprised to see this sort of breathless bold-type old-news-faux-news-everybody-panic L von M teabag ("When I go on vacation and I lay on the beach, I bring von Mises," -Michelle Bachmann) hysteria on ZH, I must say. Surprised and confused. Rupert's not at the helm, is he?

I can summarize my formal education (1951-1970) as being poured full of solutions. Life then was about going out and finding the problems. I would have been better educated and learned more if I was first taught to grasp the problems. Then finding and learning the solutions would have been much easier and more enjoyable. I now go back and read my college major (technical ... not humanities) books and they make much more sense. I've found I can learn more humanities on Wikipedia in a day than a semester of formal schooling.